What Is Your American Dream? Part 3

As a Prosperous Soul, what do you want in life? And how are you going after what you want?

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been talking about the American dream. I’ve encouraged you to sit down and make a list of what the American dream means to you, in your own words. Here is a glimpse of what it means to me:

I want to be debt free.

I want to be a bestselling author.

I want my family and grandchildren to be near me.

I want a net worth of over a million dollars.

I want retirement savings.

I want a portfolio that provides a return greater than my spending.

I want to travel for fun.

That is not my full list, but I hope these few points help spark your thinking. As Prosperous Souls, you and I are called to manage ourselves as we navigate our dreams and visions for the future.

Dreams Mean Taking Risks

At the beginning of our history as a nation, our founding fathers wanted to limit government, assure the rights of the people, and establish personal freedom.

But in order for a person to thrive in such an environment—where there is high risk and very little governmental oversight—that person needs three things:

At the risk of sounding like I have a political agenda, which I do not, I will say that at one point in our history, it was presumed that responsibility, risk, and reward rested on the individual citizen.

But today that perspective has changed. As a people, it seems that we are migrating away from responsibility, risk, and reward and heading toward three other values instead:

Comfort

Convenience

Entitlement

I’m not saying that comfort, convenience, and entitlement categorically eliminate responsibility, risk, and reward. But it does seem to me that the first group of values is on the decline in our culture. Whether we like it or not, we have a separation, and we now have to learn how to manage that separation.

What Does This Mean for You?

In the midst of social change, it is vital that you and I know what we value and aim well at our target.

What are you dreaming about? What are you reaching and hoping for? Is it to see your children happily married? Is it for friendships and to own a home? Is it to have grandchildren and to be healthy? Is it to be debt free?

Whatever your dreams are, write them down because you have a right to those things. From the very beginning of our nation, our founding fathers wanted you to have the freedom to pursue happiness.

As Prosperous Souls, you and I are building our capacity to aim at what we want in life. If we aim at nothing, we’re sure to hit it, so let’s take the time to deeply consider this concept of the American dream and position ourselves to pursue what we value. We get to work toward these things as Prosperous Souls, which places us face to face with our Father in heaven. He has a voice and an opinion about all of this, and you might be surprised at how generous He is—how much liberty there is in the kingdom of God.